Flexible fabric security pouches, bags and containers having zipper closures that are lockable are often referred to as “cash bags.” They are widely used to temporarily retain and transport items such as confidential legal papers, small firearms, and valuables such as coins, currency, checks, jewelry and the like. Security bags, pouches and containers of this type are typically formed of wear, tear and puncture resistant material, and have heavily constructed zippered closures. Key operated locks are customarily provided to hold in closed position the pull tabs that operate the zipper closures.
The use of key-operated locks on such security bags, security pouches and other security containers can present problems. In addition to keeping the containers themselves secure and safe from attack during times of use and non-use, a proper measure of security must also be provided and maintained for the plurality of keys that are provided to operate each differently keyed lock. If keys are lost or compromised, the associated security bags, pouches and containers must be taken out of service to permit their locks to be rekeyed, with the code numbers of the new keys being recorded before the keys and the rekeyed security bags, pouches and containers are redistributed to authorized persons.
To render apparent the possibility that a locked security bag, pouch or container has been intercepted and opened by unauthorized persons seeking access to its contents, it is known to provide security bags, pouches and containers with uniquely numbered or otherwise uniquely identified or configured seals of a one-use type that preferably must be broken and removed to unlock the security containers and gain access to their contents. Because the one-use seals cannot be reused, and because each seal is configured or identified in a unique manner or carries an unpredictable identifier that is intended to be unknown to unauthorized persons, it is believed that these security measures render the unnoticeable replacement of a broken and removed seal extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Hopefully, a broken or missing seal, or the substitution of an improperly identified replacement seal serves to immediately warn the recipients of security bags, pouches or containers that the bag, pouch or container is likely to have been intercepted and opened while in storage or during travel from one location to another, and to warn that the contents may have been accessed by unauthorized persons. Such warnings should always be taken seriously, even if a lock used to hold closed the security bag, pouch or container is still in a properly locked condition.
While it is known in some applications to replace various types of key operated locks and locking mechanisms with combination operated locks and locking mechanisms, no such replacement is known to have taken place in the design of security containers. Direct replacement of keyed locks and key operated locking mechanisms with combination operated locks is often difficult to achieve, if for no other reason than the fact that combination operated locks and locking mechanisms quite frequently require differently sized, differently configured housings and other associated components than are utilized by key operated locks and locking mechanisms.
Such security measures as have been developed over the years for use with key operated locks frequently prove to be inappropriate for use with combination operated locking mechanisms which require their own unique set of security measures. For example, whereas key operated locks need a capability to be rekeyed from time to time, combination operated locks need a capability to have their combinations changed from time to time. Whereas it may have made little difference whether key operated locks were rekeyable when locked or unlocked, combination operated locks must have combinations that can only be reset when the locks are unlocked, and when the associated security containers are open.
As an added measure of security, it is desirable for the combination operated locks of security containers to permit resetting of their combinations only by personnel who are in possession of some a uniquely configured, specialized tool that prepares the particular lock to have its combination altered. Absent the availability of the required uniquely configured and specialized tool, it is desirable for a combination operated lock of a security container to provide a lockout capability that effectively resists alteration of the unlocking combination—but designers of combination operated locks and locking mechanisms have not presented a solution that addresses this need until now.
It is well known to provide combination operated locks of various types that have a capability, mechanism and procedure for their combinations to be changed or reset. Among the many patents that disclose such combination operated locks are some that list the applicant as an inventor, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,201,423, 7,832,238, 7,363,782, 7,159,422, 7,007,521 and 6,877,345. A much earlier reference that also discloses a combination operated lock with a changeable combination is U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,776 entitled Combination Lock With Combination-Changing Feature, assigned on its face to Presto Lock, Inc. These seven patents are referred to later herein as the “Changeable Combination Patents,” and their disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.